Archives
The constituent order of nominal compounds in Zazaki and other Iranian languages
On the basis of typological considerations, the paper attempts to document and compare nominal compounding, and its evolution, in various Iranian languages. Particular attention is given to the interrelationship between compounds and syntactic NPs, and, among compounds, between determinative and possessive compounds. Given the lack of a comprehensive typological investigation of nominal compounding to date, the primary aim of this paper is to present original data in an unbiased manner and to identify some meaningful typological parameters as a starting point for further cross-linguistic investigation.
Pronominal Clitics Across Kurdish
An applicative analysis of Soranî “absolute prepositions”
Soranî (Central Kurdish) possesses a set of formatives of (pro)nominal and adpositional origin that combine with a verbal stem to introduce an additional pronominal indexed argument. Based on the definition used in this volume, these formatives fit neatly under the umbrella of applicative markers. However, they have only recently been described as such (Karim and Salehi 2020). Instead, traditional grammars have labeled these formatives “absolute prepositions,” a term that acknowledges their sometimes adpositional origin and their phonological similarity to synchronic adpositions. This study outlines the distribution of Soranî applicatives, their integration into the alignment system, and the formal differences between adpositional phrases and applicative constructions. Additionally, we provide a diachronic account of Soranî applicative markers. We show that they are likely just the latest stage in a grammaticalization cycle which took place several times in the history of Soranî.
The synchrony and diachrony of New Western Iranian nominal morphosyntax
Noun-plus-verb complex predicates in Kurmanji Kurdish
Complex predicates (CPs) consisting of a noun (N) and a verb (V) are an ubiquitous feature of Kurdish, and of Indo-Iranian and Indo-Aryan languages generally. Mohanan (1997) has proposed an argument-sharing analysis for this type of CP in Hindi, according to which both the noun and the verb contribute to the argument structure of the CP In this paper the argument-sharing approach is assessed against the Kurdish data, but it transpires that it only accounts for a subset of N-FV CPs. Furthermore, for one specific type of CR an analysis in terms of syntactic incorporation is simpler and empirically more adequate. I conclude that no single model accounts for the totality of CP-formation in Kurdish and related languages. Finally, I address the question of why N+V CPs should have emerged in the eastern members of Indo-European, yet are almost completely lacking in the Indo-European languages of Europe.
Differential case marking on adpositional complements in Zazakî
Research Questions of this thesis:
1) Under which circumstances do adpositional complements receive oblique
case marking?
2) Is animacy the sole determining factor or does definiteness play a role as
well?
3) Are there any regional differences for above-mentioned determiners?
For this purpose, 25 speakers of Zazakî have been interviewed using a translation task questionnaire that tests a subset of frequent adpositions with animate and inanimate nouns in different states of referentiality (definite or indefinite). Due to reasons of scope, the research at hand focuses on the Northern Dialect of the regions Dêrsim (Tunceli), Gimgim (Varto), and to some extent Qoçgîrî. After
introducing the language, its speakers, the numerous existing ethnonyms and glossonyms in Section 2, a theoretical overview of adpositional case marking, also known as flagging, are given both in a general sense and for Zazakî in particular in Section 3. Furthermore, the various effects of animacy and definiteness on differential case marking are examined. Section 4 describes the scope and methods of data gathering, the questionnaire design, and data evaluation necessary to address the research questions. The final results and a discussion are offered in Section 5. The results show the effects of animacy and definiteness per each adposition and complement before presenting the concluding remarks in Section 6.